Competing in the unique Triple Distance Meet format that crowned winners based on a three-race cumulative time, the Cal men's swimming team claimed four event wins and earned victories in both relays against Stanford at Avery Aquatic Center.
"This meet was a real thrill with some great competition on a great day, and you can't always depend on all that to come together, but it did nicely today," said Goldman Family Director of Men's Swimming Ted Knapp. "We talked about being ready to race, even after a solid morning in the weight room they were fully ready to go. Wednesday is usually our recovery day, so give all the guys credit for digging deep and breaking routine to come out and be so competitive."
The meet marked the return of Olympian Ryan Murphy, but Stanford's James Yoder was the standout, setting a pool record in the 200 Butterfly.
"As a senior, to break a pool record in the first home meet of the season -- not to mention after having his tonsils taken out in August -- is incredible," said Knapp. "He's the guy we are pointing to on our 200 medley relay team right now, and that's a testament to the hard work he's been putting in over the past six weeks."
Senior Ryan Murphy returned to racing with a win in the backstroke while fellow senior Hunter Cobleigh won a tight battle with teammate Connor Hoppe to claim victory in the breaststroke. Freshman Michael Jensen took the victory in the sprint freestyle and Andrew Seliskar finished the day with the best overall time in the individual medley.
"I thought the freshmen as a whole were very good," said Knapp. "They had a fantastic showing in the distance freestyle events, and they are all making positive strides every day in training."
Racing a format in which swimmers totaled their times in three different distances of each stroke, several Bears took the blocks in races that they wouldn't normally compete in. In the breaststroke, that meant Hoppe and Cobleigh went toe to toe and, after Hoppe won both the 50 and 100-yard versions of the event, Cobleigh rallied with a time of 2:01.07 to finish the three events with a time of 3:22.64 that was a mere nine-hundreths of a second faster than Hoppe.
Murphy made his 2016 debut with a trio of dominant swims in the backstroke, winning the 50, 100 and 200 to earn the victory. A strong second-place swim in the 200 by freshman Andy Song resulted in a 1-2 finish for the Bears in the back.
A pair of Cal freshmen battled for the sprint freestyle crown and Jensen rode wins in the 100 and 200 to the victory. Stanford's Sam Perry placed second and Cal's 'Aukai Lileikis finished third.
Sophomore Andrew Seliskar lined up for the individual medley and got off to a good start with a win in the rare 100 IM. He rolled to wins in the 200 and 400 and took the overall title.
Junior Justin Lynch had a strong effort in the butterfly, winning both the 50 and 100. He also put forward a solid swim in the 200 butterfly, and although Stanford's Jimmy Yoder claimed the win, Lynch continued a strong start to the 2016-17 campaign.
"I thought Justin did a nice job managing his three swims," Cal head coach David Durden said. "Being 1:44 on the end of that 200 fly, with it not being something really that we've focused on this year, I thought that was some good, mature swimming. In the backstroke, Murph's going to do what Murph does. I thought Andy Song put together three nice swims in that backstroke as well.
"From a breaststroke perspective with Hunter and Hoppe, that was the perfect format for them. Hoppe's going to win the 50 and the 100, Hunter's going to win the 200 and it's just a matter of how much he's going to win it by to see if he's going to get Hoppe. The 200s across the board for our guys I thought were really good. Our young guys did a nice job with Jensen and 'Aukai in the sprint free. And, (Seliskar) put together three nice swims in the IM. It was really good to see that we were seeing three collective good swims rather than one or two."
Cal capped the day with wins in both relays. The foursome of Murphy, Hoppe, Seliskar and Jonathan Fiepke won the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:28.16 and the quartet of Lynch, Pawel Sendyk, Jensen and Lileikis came back a few moments later to win the 200 free relay with a time of 1:19.98
